Monday, April 18, 2011

As with any old recipe, there are numerous theories as to how the dish came to be named. The one I subscribe to claims it's an Italian adaptation of the French word "piquer," which means to prick or poke with something sharp. This makes absolutely no sense, until you taste it.

The "to prick" is apparently a metaphor for the sharp, intensely flavored sauce. Thanks to lots of lemon, capers, and wine, this sauce is about as subtle as a right hook (apologies to non-boxing fans for the reference).

Here, I've demonstrated a very basic version of a recipe that begs for variation. I'll sometimes add minced shallots, or garlic; sometimes I'll use wine, other times just straight lemon. Italian parsley is wonderful as the finishing herb, but switching that out for tarragon or basil will also bring much pleasure.

One note about the chicken: I like to use larger breasts, pounded to about 1/2-inch thick. If you are using small 6-oz chicken breasts, there's no need to pound out. Most versions I've seen call for the meat to be pounded extremely thin, but I believe this comes from the fact that the original recipe used thin veal medallions, aka scaloppini.

At home we have the luxury of a few extra minutes, and I think the slightly thicker chicken gives you a little nicer bite. Anyway, I hope this post "piques" your interest, and you give this quick and delicious recipe a try!

Thanks Chef John, this looks great and very adaptable to whatever is in the pantry besides lemon, butter and capers. It's much like the lemon-caper-butter-sauce you made with Sole Dore a few years back which is a favourite.

Chef John I really love your site and thanks for so much inspiration. I am a Dad who gets to set foot in the kitchen and cook on Saturday evenings...I blow the family away with your creations... Anyway my question is...Why put the chicken back in the sauce to heat through? Is it ok to reserve the cooked chicken in a warm oven and then plate it and pour the sauce right on top?Thanks and best regards

Dear Chef John,each and every one of your food videos is an epic foodgasm.This site is unbelievable...and also the cause of major drooling over my keyboard.On a side note,I recently got myself some muffin tin trays and can't wait to use them.Would you consider making a muffin video perhaps sometime in the future?Pretty please?:)Greetings from Greece

So many of your recipes call for white wine but I don't drink white wine and I have no idea how long wine keeps in the fridge. Also wine's kinda expensive and I cant see buying a bottle when I'm only gonna use a half cup.

Can I substitute something else or what? If not what kind of wine do I buy?

Regards first Anon's post: I suspect youre thinking about Chicken Marsala, a different chicken dish that Chef John has also wonderfully demonstrated on this website. Dont feel bad, I confuse the names of dishes all the time too.

Dear Chef John,Just made chicken Piccata for dinner and it's yummolicious!! MY whole family loves it even the kids like it too! Although they had no idea what capers are, they were willing to give it a try. I absolutely love it myself. I will for sure make it every 10 days! Thanks so much!! Andria from N California

I stumbled on your blog and I my first attempt at your chicken mushroom dish was a complete success! Man, was it ever tasty. Kudos, and thank you for sharing it!

Now, I'm looking at making this dish, but I'm actually on a Paleo diet; that means NO GLUTEN and therefore no wheat flour.

I'll probably test this out with both coconut and almond flours, but I was wondering if you had any insight into how they may alter the flavour profile. Will this be too noticeable a change for the recipe?

Finally, I browsed your blog, but I couldn't find any recipes for a beef jerky marinade. Is this something you may look to cover in the future?

if possible Chef, would you prefer to receive such emails direct to foodwishes@yahoo.com or would you prefer i contact you this way.

the reason i wanted to send an email was to ask you if you ever had a chance to make the chicken kiev, this is a little old to ask for now but it is a favorite for many and i would kindly request if you would cosider making a video.

i hope you have the time and look forward to the recipy soon.

i think you're the best and wish you all the success that you truly deserve

Holy moley I measured out 1/4 cup of lime juice (no lemons at home) and boy oh boy the sauce came out so freakin' sour! Chef john, is it supposed to be like that?? I've never made chicken piccata at home before but I've had it many times in restaurants and it's never been this tart. If my sauce is too tart, what can I add to fix it and make it less tart? I tried adding some water, some milk, and even a little sugar and (to say the least) it was a hot mess. :/ Help!

Chef John,This recipe is for 2 chicken breasts, and I was cooking 6. Was it right for me to triple all the ingredients, including the lemon juice and capers? I feel as though it turned out to be extremely sour.

This was very good...however could you put the written instructions for prep and not just the video. It froze up and I was on my own...so my chicken was a bit more over cooked while I was trying to get the video to work. Thank goodness I was a more experienced cook and could wing it. But an inexperienced cook could have been totally lost without written step by step instructions. Thanks.

Hey Chef John – Happy New Year! I made the Chicken Piccata for the second time last night and it turned out as fabulous as the first time I made it. The only thing I did different was to add some garlic and onion powders, Adobo and a bit of cumin with the salt and pepper in the flour. After dredging the chicken in the flour mixture, I let it sit for about 30 mins. before frying. I absolutely LOVE the flavor the capers gives it, and the lemony flavor from the fresh lemons is out of this world. I did, however, add 3/4 cups of wine, together with 3 tlbsps. of capers, which kicked it into full swing, and 4 tlbsps. of butter, so you can imagine how rich and creamy it turned out. I made approximately 5breasts, so the measurements were perfect. Thanks so much for inspiring me with all your wonderful recipes. It’s my go to cooking website!!

I got a big bottle of white wine for christmas and I'm not a huge wine drinker (I unfortunately have a pabst blue ribbon pallet) and I needed a recipe to actually use the wine and Chicken Piccata saved the day.

This is the second recipe that I've tried from your site. (The first was the roasted chicken for Julia Child.) Both recipes were absolutely delicious! My husband is not a big eater, but he loved both dinners so far (and he had seconds of the roasted chicken.) Thanks for such a great website!

A suggestion: when you're doing your videos, could you mention the quantities that you are using? I keep the video playing as I cook, and it would be great if I didn't have to touch my computer with my messy fingers to check the quantities. Just a suggestion. Thanks. ~Mo

Your videos have inspired me to try my hand at new dishes that I never would have had the confidence to make. I made the chicken picatta for my 13-year old daughter this weekend and she hasn't stopped raving to her friends about it since. She thought it was better than going to a fancy intalian restaurant!! What an easy and delicious recipe. I would love to know, though, the ingredients for 6 or 8 cutlets. I want to make this for my whole family later this week, but I don't know the quantities or if i should be cooking in a few pans at once. Thanks Chef John!!

This was wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing this. I originally found you looking for a fried green tomatoes recipe and I've been hooked on your blog ever since. Thank you so much for the inspiration!

This is THE BEST chicken breast recipe I have ever made, and I have been cooking for 30 years. Served if the first time with cous cous, had 7 people over for dinner. None of them had ever heard of capers! It was amazing. It was a bit spicy so I quickly made a dip using plain Greek yogurt with lemon juice for those who needed a "coolant." The leftovers (I cooked 3 lbs of chicken! ) were even tastier. Well done!

You have made my family very happy tonight. The piccata was just incredible. I've made this recipe two nights in a row. The first time was for my wife. It was soooo good, I was wanting more and made a midnight snack, but the real test was my 15 year old daughter, she doesn't even like chicken and it was her favorite meal ever! Thanks John. I'm your number 1 fan! You have made eating a treat!JamesCalifornia

I made this a while ago as a "Try anything Wednesday". My wife does not like lemons, capers, butter or wine but I gave it a shot anyway and SHE loved it. We have had it alot since and it has become her favourite dish, I serve it with your "Broken Spagetti" recipe and it seems to be the perfect combination. BTW, I am always telling my wife and others, that a combination of igredients is always different than those ingredients alone

I made this tonight for my wife -- it was a huge hit -- thanks Chef John!

I only had a half-lemon (about 1/8 cup) for a full recipe and didn't want to open a batch of chicken stock to supplement, so I used water with a half teaspoon of dijon for flavor. Turned great. I served mine with just some angel hair pasta with a bit of the piccata sauce stirred in, and brussle sprouts.

Hey John,just to say i did this for Sunday lunch with pork tenderloin today! chicken breasts looked hideous yesterday at grocery and only other thing was the tenderloin. I scanned these comments to see if anyone had done this sauce with other white meats and didn't see anything... so just to report it was VANTASTISCH!!!! Cut the loin at an angle for better pounding length... trying to simulate the chicken breast surface area idea... and seasoned exactly as you described, made the sauce with this amazingly cheap chard-pinot blanc i can get here for like 5 dollars (price in this country way better than USA for wine) and the wife and kids went nuts for it! the pork was succulent and even though it was "over-done" for tenderloin, was truly amazing! Served with warm salad of sautee'd broad beans and shallots and wilted cherry tomato... just a bit of left-over basmati rice for the carb.

I could totally see this sauce technique done now for pork-chops....

cheers from Austria,DanielPS> Sorry if i'm an idiot and someone (or you) posted can/should do this with any white meat.

Hello Chef John. I'm very new to cooking, and I almost always make something from your blog (thanks for the videos). I would really like to try out this recipe. However, I've never cooked with wine before (and I know nothing about wine)...are they different for cooking? What do I look for? Thanks :)

I live in France and I am a biiiig fan. However, I now have a new hobby, and that is trying to find a Chef John recipe which does NOT contain cayenne pepper! Just joking, I love your vids John, you always give me a giggle.

I love each of your grilled chicken recipes that I've tried, but was craving your chicken piccata so I decided to make this over the weekend for my wife and kids and me. While it wasn't the first time I've made this recipe, it did remind me of how great of a recipe this really is, and how much I've learned watching your videos.

This was amazing! I'm making it for the 4th time in two months (that's a lot for my picky-eating family) They've requested it a lot! On a side note, I'm harnessing my chef "skills" and would absolutely love to spend a day with you! Do you ever do cooking classes? Thans chef John!

Hope CJ has a nice vacation, please let him know I watch his video's nearly daily, I have the naration on this one memorized and that, especially after a difficult day, his voice and video's makes the world seem like a better place.

Hi Chef John,I prepared this last weekend and it was fantastic. The chicken is some of the best I've ever eaten. However, I had trouble getting my sauce to thicken - it was a bit watery, and I was sure to allow the wine to reduce by half (i also left the final sauce on heat for a bit to thicken...it didn't really). What would you advise? How can I get it to not be so watery? Also, would adding a splash of heavy cream be a bad idea?

I'll be serving this soon. My husband is not a veggie person so I'll be serving this with bacon & red onion wrapped new potatoes. for me, spaghetti squash tossed with sauteed carrots, sugar snap peas and zucchini. I'll use rice flour for dredging. Cannot wait for this!

Here I am, March 25,2015. I finally made this meal. While it looked delicious the taste was even better. I love capers. My husband liked this so much he is taking left overs for his lunch. I will be making this again.Thanks for a great recipe.

Hi Chef John, Thank you so much for your videos!! My husband loves to cook and when he found your blog he made us the chicken piccata and we LOVED it!!!! My little girls always ask to have it for dinner. I just wanted to let you know you are appreciated....thank you for being such a great teacher!! My husband and I will continue to try out all your recipes! Blessings